FCC fines Google over Street View, investigation dropped

[Leeky]

The US Federal Communications Commission has fined internet search giant Google $25,000 for deliberately impeding the investigation into the collection of wireless network data for their Google Street View project,...

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[Guest]

It was always about wifi access points and never about streetview, which has been the convenient cover story for this farce for years. google are simply lying - the geo IP data is what they were after from day one - blaming rogue employees is disgusting and shows this company up for what it really is - an unscrupulous ad company that sell your data to the highest bidder.

 

[cliffordcooley]

You two guest do not know that for a fact and need to quit spreading what could or could not be the truth. If you have proof otherwise, please present it to the authorities in this case so the story above can be updated to match your accusations.

P.S.
I hate Google with a passion but that doesn't mean I am going to slander their name at every turn.

 

[Guest]

Read The Register's article from two years ago on this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/google_street_view_cars_were_collecting_payload_data_from_wifi_networks/

Most notably:

"A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic Wi-Fi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software — although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data."

Streetview was primarily all about sniffing on wifi APs for geolocation purposes, the controversy here is about whether google intentionally picked up "payloads" from unprotected wifi LANs.

 

[Guest]

To be clear, that's someone driving past in a car, on the pretext of photographing the street, running software that automatically logs the SSID and Mac address of your AP, while grabbing any other information they can, and logging it's physical coordinates on the globe.